Abstract:
Illegal bushmeat hunting is a major driver of wildlife population declines in Northern
Botswana. Such declines raise concerns about the principles and integrity of the
Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA) and regional economic
stability which is heavily reliant on wildlife-based tourism. The KAZA landscape between
Northern Botswana’s protected areas consists of non-state land utilized communally
by small agropastoralist communities. These communities are economically challenged
by international beef trade policies, restricted access to grazing in nearby wildlife
management areas and high conflict costs from living in close proximity to wildlife;
some of the key factors identified as drivers of bushmeat hunting in the region. Here
we describe how a model called Herding for Health (H4H) could address these drivers.
We discuss strategies using a socio-economic centered Theory of Change (ToC) model
to identify the role agropastoral communities can have in addressing illegal wildlife
trade (IWT). The ToC conceptual framework was developed with input from a resource
team consisting of scientific and implementation experts in H4H, wildlife conservation,
illegal wildlife trade and livelihood development between September and December
2018, and with a validation workshop in March 2019 with government representatives
from relevant ministries, NGO’s, community-based organizations and private sector
participants. We identify three pathways deriving from the ToC driven by community
level actions to address IWT in the region. These include: increasing institutions for
local enforcement, developing incentives for ecosystem stewardship and decreasing the
costs of living alongside wildlife. The success of these pathways depends on underlying
enabling actions: support for the development of institutional frameworks; building community capacity to facilitate informed best farming practices; and strengthening
commitments to sustainable resource management to increase resilience to climatic and
economic shocks.
